Determine if you have hard or soft water. You need less soap when you have soft water. You can do a quick test to see if you are currently using to much soap by simply running the washer on a normal cycle and DO NOT add any soap. Also do not add any clothes but run it empty. Notice after about 5 minutes before it drains for the first time if you have soap bubbles on top of the water. You may need a flashlight to see into the drum through your glass door. You can also push the pause button an when you hear the click of the door lock release open the door to inspect. Now close the door and resume the cycle. The very first fill cycle is when the soap that is normally added gets mixed in with the clothes. Every fill cycle after the first drain is only to rinse the clothes. If you get bubbles after your last regular load, you were using so much soap that even with all the regular rinse cycles you were not able to totally rinse out the soap. This will shorten the life of your clothing as they are not meant to have soap in them when the wash cycle is over. You can also test to see if you have residual soap built up in your laundry by putting in a load of CLEAN towels that have not been used yet and run a normal cycle but DO NOT add any soap. Check again toward the end of the first cycle and see if you have any bubbles in the water. If you do, you have soap in the towels from previous washings.
If you have soft water, you only need about 1 tablespoon (1/16 cup) of liquid High Efficiency (HE) soap. Some people will tell you that you need to use powdered HE soap vs liquid HE soap. As someone who has worked on the front load machines and taken them totally apart to fix them. Powdered soap that does not totally dissolve can get into the nooks and crannies of the internal metal parts of the machine, which over time cause the parts to fail prematurely. For this reason, use liquid and use the right amount for your water.
If you have hard water, never use more than 2 tablespoons (1/8 cup) of liquid HE soap. For a reference, 2 tablespoons of liquid detergent just covers the bottom of the cap that the soap manufacturer gives you to measure out the soap. Think about it, the soap manufacturer is in the business of selling soap and is not going to tell you to use less soap because that means less business for them. The manufacturer of your machine is also not going to tell you not to use too much soap because using too much soap will cause your machine to fail prematurely which means you will be a customer for them much sooner then you really need to be, which means more revenue for them.
After you have used the correct amount of soap (as outlined above), for a month or two, run the same test above just to make sure that with your water and the brand soap you use, it is the correct amount. This is what the internal parts of you washer can look like if you have been using too much soap.
Using too much soap also adds to the smell that most front load machines either have (or will have) over time. The soap is a food for the black mold that grows inside the pipes of your machine, which is what you are smelling when you smell a foul odor. If you have been using close to the correct amount of soap, then you may not have that odor yet but given enough time most front load machines will get that smell.
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